Chapter 6 - GATE C17
Maya chased him through Gate C17 in socks because her shoes had come loose during the landing.
"Federal investigator! Stop!"
People scattered.
The man cut behind a closed coffee kiosk, shoved through a service door, and disappeared into a baggage corridor.
Maya caught the door before it shut.
He swung a metal scanner at her head.
She ducked.
The scanner smashed into the wall.
Maya drove her shoulder into his chest, turned his arm, and put him face-first on the concrete without throwing a single punch.
"Where's the drive?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
She tightened the hold just enough.
"Bad answer."
Airport police arrived seconds later.
The man was identified as Colin Sayer, a contract mechanic who had been suspended six months earlier.
Inside his jacket, officers found the drive.
They also found twelve thousand dollars in cash.
Victor, now escorted into the terminal, saw Colin in handcuffs and stopped walking.
Maya noticed.
"Know him?"
"Never seen him."
Colin laughed.
"That's funny, Mr. Langston. You knew me yesterday."
Victor's lawyer appeared less than ten minutes later.
So did an order from Meridian's corporate office demanding that the aircraft maintenance records be sealed as proprietary information.
Maya read the order twice.
Then she looked at Erin.
"Somebody knew I was on that flight before I boarded."
Erin frowned. "How?"
Maya held up the drive.
May you like
Maya's takedown was controlled, not theatrical. She remembered years of military combatives instructors repeating the same rule: stop the threat, don't feed your anger. Colin cursed beneath her, but Maya's mind stayed on the missing drive. If he had been waiting at the gate, then somebody had known where Victor hid it. That meant the theft was planned before the aircraft touched down. The emergency had not created the conspiracy. It had only exposed one moving part of it.
"That's what I'm about to find out."
